claiming the gospel. A child has a sense of wonder. Gypsy Smith ex plained the secret of the freshness of his ministry into the ’80s by saying, “ I have never lost the wonder.” We are in a battle of wits and a bustle of works in the church these days but somewhere amidst the wits and the works we have lost the wonder. And nothing on earth can be so dry, stale, flat and unprofitable as Chris tian work without the wonder, the statutes without the song, the words without the music. W H A T DID TH E Y HAVE? The early church did not have much that we have but they had something we do not always seem to have. They knew the Lord, they were filled with the Spirit, they loved each other, everyone was a missionary and they were looking for the Lord to return. They had wits aplenty, keen intellects, and works abounded for theirs was a labor of love, but all this was glorified and trans formed by the Spirit of God. They were “ open on the Godward side,” as Dr. Phillips puts it. Today much of evangelical Christianity is like John Wesley before Aldersgate, well-reared, educated, hard working, separated, missionary-minded, but for all that, trying to take off on a cold motor. Until its heart is strangely warmed it will continue to wander like Alice in Wonderland. W H A T IS TH E ANSWER? But how shall we change from childishness to child likeness? Our Lord told us: “ Except ye be converted and become as little children . . . ” Conversion comes first. There must be a radical turn, an about-face. We need a heartwarming. So, amidst all the panels and symposiums, we had better, along with the aforementioned Dutchman, “ get into a good old Jesus meeting.” If we cannot find one, let us have one personally and then invite the neighbors. If any man will open the door, He will come in. Where two or three gather in His name He is there. That is a Jesus meeting and it is the only answer to wandering in Wonderland.
Land are the Rethinkers, Revaluators and Reappraisers of everything from inspiration to the tribulation. One would think it a late date to be examining the foun dations of our faith. Some theologians may need to be examined. And it need not be so disturbing just because Martin Luther or some other worthy may have had his doubts as to the canonicity of a book or two in the Bible. The Bible does not stand or fall with any man. Every man stands or falls on his relation to the Word of God. “ Let God be true but every man a liar.” And how tragic that Bible believers should fall into the subtle trap of arguing the tribulation so vehemently that we have little time to simply rejoice in the blessed hope! We pilgrims are discussing the timetable and missing the scenery. And now comes a new tempest over worldliness and separation. A few fundamentalists with their rigid “don’ts” come in for a blasting. Most church members that I know are in no danger of becoming puritanical. A lot of ink could be used on the wilderness wanderers who would rather have Egypt’s melons than Canaan’s manna. SHALL WE MAKE TRUCE? Then, too, what about another crowd that one sel dom hears mentioned, Christians who say they are living in the land but who have come to an armistice with the Philistines and a truce with Gibeon ? Certainly we need to get out into the world and let our light shine in a dark place. But a godless generation will have little truck with a real Christian, and how strangers and pil grims can be hail-fellows-well-met and chummy with a pagan age is not set forth in the New Testament. Most of the efforts made today to clarify the issue of separa tion only confuse it and give false comfort to worldly- minded Christians. Obviously, the way out of a stupor is not by getting into a stew. Can a man be a simple, humble, plain Chris tian today? Our Lord said that we must be childlike if we would enter the kingdom. Too many are childish instead, children of the market place as our Lord called them, playing church instead of practicing and pro
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MAY, 1965
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